Lasagne di Mamma 1 portion Ragù (bolognese sauce) 1 pkt fresh lasagne sheets – YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRECOOK THESE DESPITE WHAT EVERYONE SAYS! 500gr béchamel sauce (I buy ready-made if I don’t have time, and add about 250ml of milk to it to make it slightly runny) Plenty of parmesan breadcrumbs Ragù ingredients: 1 tbs oil 1 chopped onion 1 chopped carrot 1 chopped celery stalk (optional) Cinnamon 50 gr bacon (if you have it) 500 gr mince ½ glass wine (red or white is fine) 1 tin chopped tomatoes 1 bay leaf Salt and pepper Gently soften the onion, carrot, celery and bacon in the oil with a good pinch of cinnamon. When soft, add the mince and toss until it has lost all its red colour. Add the wine and cook until it has evaporated. Add the tomatoes, fill the tin with water and add that too, add the bay leaf and seasoning to taste. Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer gently for at least half an hour. The sauce is ready when the oil comes to the surface. Now build up your lasagna dish: Spread a little sauce over the base of the lasagna dish, then pasta, sauce, plenty of parmesan in layers, until all the ingredients are finished. The last layer of parmesan should be mixed with equal quantities of breadcrumbs and thickly spread over the lot. Dot with little knobs of butter and put in the oven at 180° for 40 minutes. Leave to sit for a little – about 7 minutes, so it settles, and then enjoy watching your guests enjoying it.
You could just say “... X guidava come un pazzo”. When we were kids and were driving along at my dad’s quite sedate pace, if ever we got overtaken by a madman, which was quite often, my dad had two sayings: (a) “corri, corri che sei solo” meaning that, since the person was driving so fast there was the risk of an accident, he obviously (and it was always a he) had no family to worry about him if he came to an untimely end! And (b) “Perchè corri, hai paura che ti si fredda l’insalata” fredda standing for raffredda, and meaning “why go so fast are you worried your salad will get cold?”
If ever you happen to be in my part of Umbria you will find a remarkable lack of “insetti molesti”, as my chase-away-candle calls them. This is not because we are in an insect-free zone but because I spend a lot of my time spreading all kinds of fly killer/wasp killer/mosquito killer products around the house and covered terrace. Indeed, if you see a grey-haired madwoman chasing flies with a fly swat in one hand; shooting down wasp nests with a vicious looking spray with the other; and setting anti-mosquito spirals aflame with her third hand, then you have found me! I can also be found in the insect-repellent part of any good supermarket looking for any new, improved insect assassination products… So, my house is insect-free but probably the most dangerous place in the world for toxic fumes – anybody visiting me will not need an Epipen but washing down in one of those anti-radiation showers you see in disaster films, followed by a more or less long stay in an oxygen tent.
My English husband who always has TWO hankies because when he was little his mother used to ask him every time he left the house whether he had a clean hankie with him; he never understood why, so, to avoid discussions, he would just have an extra one in his pocket. When we got married, he finally realised why: I never remember a hankie so often have to ask him for one and ... he ALWAYS has one to give me. You see: Mother is always right!
I'm obviously of a different generation to a lot of you because I can still remember putting on my "best clothes" for a journey - but then I am Italian...
30 June is the last day of the university year in Belgium. We live behind one of the universities in Brussels and fireworks are order of the day for a full week up to and including 1 July, much to my Border Collie's disgust. Like most other dogs he hates fireworks and goes into hiding behind the broom cupboard and will only come out for a lump of cheese!
We have always paid our ICI in one go in June and always late because we don't get to Italy before mid-July. Our commercialista, who draws up the forms so we find them waiting for us on our first day in Italy, has always said that this is not a problem and, so far, it hasn't been. We (that is, my husband who actually pays his half because he's non-resident and foreign, while I'm an Italian AIRE so don't pay my half, much to his disgust) had to pay some back-looking ICI because somehow this got overlooked at the time - I think for 2005-2007 - and I don't even think we got fined; if we did, it must have been peanuts because I can't remember and I would if it had been an eye-watering amount! We decided to get the commercialista to do this for us until we move permanently to Italy because, that way, he reminds us of deadlines and amounts - very useful. He costs us about €50 every couple of years or so when he remembers to charge us.
Skype every time for me! We have family in Italy (with parents of over 90 who definitely do not have computers only regular phones), children in the UK and, for the moment, in Spain. We use Skype computer- to-computer to contact the kids – that’s free – and Skypeout to talk to unreconstructed relatives. This last caper used to cost us €1/hour until a Swiss friend told us about an arrangement you can have with Skype. It costs us around €5 a month and we get “free” time for as long as we like to wherever we like as often as we like - I talk for a minimum of 30 minutes every day with my mum in Italy. Check the Skype website to see what countries this covers. Our phone bills in Belgium before we did this were horrendous, they looked like phone numbers and not phone bills! Now, we only get the smallest of Belgacom bills to cover local calls and other tariffs which they apply just for the pleasure of it. When we’re in Italy, we just log on with our usual Skype name and the arrangement continues to work there too.
Three years ago we spent a long week-end in Venice and, horrified at the prices hotels were asking, searched the internet until we came up with www.venicenice.com. At the time (May 2008) a very pleasant apartment for 2 – made up of a very large kitchen/living room, a bedroom and a shower room – with its own piece of garden at the back cost us €100 per night. It was just a short walk from the “Giardini della Biennale” vaporetto stop, or a 15 minute brisk walk from S. Marco. On your way to S.Marco, behind the apartments, is a floating market where we would buy our food. Contact: Gianni Dei Rossi www.venicenice.com Telephone 00 39 347 8315713 Skype: gianniit2000 Facebook: (venivenice venice) or (venice nice)
We bought our run-down farmhouse in Umbria at the beginning of 2005 and decided that, for the first year we would not do any renovations because the top floor (the one lived in until fairly recently) was in relatively good condition and we could spend the summer there without too much discomfort. In order to make sure that everything was set up for my family of four, my sister and I went to spend a couple of nights there about a month before I came with husband and kids to start our holiday. She and I slept in two of the rooms. The first night I was kept awake by her fiddling around next door and really making odd noises, so the next morning I asked her what she thought she had been doing. “Me!” she exclaimed, “I thought it was you making that racket!” We looked at each other in horror and decided we had rats or, at the very least, mice in the loft space. We got the workmen who were putting in the pool – notice our priorities here, no renovations but a pool – to net off the porthole window on the outside of the house to prevent any further infestation and went off shopping. When we came back we went outside to check if they had done so and were greeted by the upsetting sight of a beautiful barn owl staring out at us from inside the netting. I yelled for the workmen to come back and liberate her immediately, which they did reluctantly, all the time muttering under their breaths about these mad tender-hearted townies who were not prepared to let a silly bird die! We had a wonderful summer with these owls appearing every evening in low silent swoops. Unfortunately, now the house has been almost completely renovated and we spend a number of months a year there, they are nowhere to be seen. Sad.
Comments posted
Lasagne di Mamma 1 portion Ragù (bolognese sauce) 1 pkt fresh lasagne sheets – YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRECOOK THESE DESPITE WHAT EVERYONE SAYS! 500gr béchamel sauce (I buy ready-made if I don’t have time, and add about 250ml of milk to it to make it slightly runny) Plenty of parmesan breadcrumbs Ragù ingredients: 1 tbs oil 1 chopped onion 1 chopped carrot 1 chopped celery stalk (optional) Cinnamon 50 gr bacon (if you have it) 500 gr mince ½ glass wine (red or white is fine) 1 tin chopped tomatoes 1 bay leaf Salt and pepper Gently soften the onion, carrot, celery and bacon in the oil with a good pinch of cinnamon. When soft, add the mince and toss until it has lost all its red colour. Add the wine and cook until it has evaporated. Add the tomatoes, fill the tin with water and add that too, add the bay leaf and seasoning to taste. Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer gently for at least half an hour. The sauce is ready when the oil comes to the surface. Now build up your lasagna dish: Spread a little sauce over the base of the lasagna dish, then pasta, sauce, plenty of parmesan in layers, until all the ingredients are finished. The last layer of parmesan should be mixed with equal quantities of breadcrumbs and thickly spread over the lot. Dot with little knobs of butter and put in the oven at 180° for 40 minutes. Leave to sit for a little – about 7 minutes, so it settles, and then enjoy watching your guests enjoying it.
You could just say “... X guidava come un pazzo”. When we were kids and were driving along at my dad’s quite sedate pace, if ever we got overtaken by a madman, which was quite often, my dad had two sayings: (a) “corri, corri che sei solo” meaning that, since the person was driving so fast there was the risk of an accident, he obviously (and it was always a he) had no family to worry about him if he came to an untimely end! And (b) “Perchè corri, hai paura che ti si fredda l’insalata” fredda standing for raffredda, and meaning “why go so fast are you worried your salad will get cold?”
If ever you happen to be in my part of Umbria you will find a remarkable lack of “insetti molesti”, as my chase-away-candle calls them. This is not because we are in an insect-free zone but because I spend a lot of my time spreading all kinds of fly killer/wasp killer/mosquito killer products around the house and covered terrace. Indeed, if you see a grey-haired madwoman chasing flies with a fly swat in one hand; shooting down wasp nests with a vicious looking spray with the other; and setting anti-mosquito spirals aflame with her third hand, then you have found me! I can also be found in the insect-repellent part of any good supermarket looking for any new, improved insect assassination products… So, my house is insect-free but probably the most dangerous place in the world for toxic fumes – anybody visiting me will not need an Epipen but washing down in one of those anti-radiation showers you see in disaster films, followed by a more or less long stay in an oxygen tent.
My English husband who always has TWO hankies because when he was little his mother used to ask him every time he left the house whether he had a clean hankie with him; he never understood why, so, to avoid discussions, he would just have an extra one in his pocket. When we got married, he finally realised why: I never remember a hankie so often have to ask him for one and ... he ALWAYS has one to give me. You see: Mother is always right!
I'm obviously of a different generation to a lot of you because I can still remember putting on my "best clothes" for a journey - but then I am Italian...
30 June is the last day of the university year in Belgium. We live behind one of the universities in Brussels and fireworks are order of the day for a full week up to and including 1 July, much to my Border Collie's disgust. Like most other dogs he hates fireworks and goes into hiding behind the broom cupboard and will only come out for a lump of cheese!
We have always paid our ICI in one go in June and always late because we don't get to Italy before mid-July. Our commercialista, who draws up the forms so we find them waiting for us on our first day in Italy, has always said that this is not a problem and, so far, it hasn't been. We (that is, my husband who actually pays his half because he's non-resident and foreign, while I'm an Italian AIRE so don't pay my half, much to his disgust) had to pay some back-looking ICI because somehow this got overlooked at the time - I think for 2005-2007 - and I don't even think we got fined; if we did, it must have been peanuts because I can't remember and I would if it had been an eye-watering amount! We decided to get the commercialista to do this for us until we move permanently to Italy because, that way, he reminds us of deadlines and amounts - very useful. He costs us about €50 every couple of years or so when he remembers to charge us.
Skype every time for me! We have family in Italy (with parents of over 90 who definitely do not have computers only regular phones), children in the UK and, for the moment, in Spain. We use Skype computer- to-computer to contact the kids – that’s free – and Skypeout to talk to unreconstructed relatives. This last caper used to cost us €1/hour until a Swiss friend told us about an arrangement you can have with Skype. It costs us around €5 a month and we get “free” time for as long as we like to wherever we like as often as we like - I talk for a minimum of 30 minutes every day with my mum in Italy. Check the Skype website to see what countries this covers. Our phone bills in Belgium before we did this were horrendous, they looked like phone numbers and not phone bills! Now, we only get the smallest of Belgacom bills to cover local calls and other tariffs which they apply just for the pleasure of it. When we’re in Italy, we just log on with our usual Skype name and the arrangement continues to work there too.
Three years ago we spent a long week-end in Venice and, horrified at the prices hotels were asking, searched the internet until we came up with www.venicenice.com. At the time (May 2008) a very pleasant apartment for 2 – made up of a very large kitchen/living room, a bedroom and a shower room – with its own piece of garden at the back cost us €100 per night. It was just a short walk from the “Giardini della Biennale” vaporetto stop, or a 15 minute brisk walk from S. Marco. On your way to S.Marco, behind the apartments, is a floating market where we would buy our food. Contact: Gianni Dei Rossi www.venicenice.com Telephone 00 39 347 8315713 Skype: gianniit2000 Facebook: (venivenice venice) or (venice nice)
We bought our run-down farmhouse in Umbria at the beginning of 2005 and decided that, for the first year we would not do any renovations because the top floor (the one lived in until fairly recently) was in relatively good condition and we could spend the summer there without too much discomfort. In order to make sure that everything was set up for my family of four, my sister and I went to spend a couple of nights there about a month before I came with husband and kids to start our holiday. She and I slept in two of the rooms. The first night I was kept awake by her fiddling around next door and really making odd noises, so the next morning I asked her what she thought she had been doing. “Me!” she exclaimed, “I thought it was you making that racket!” We looked at each other in horror and decided we had rats or, at the very least, mice in the loft space. We got the workmen who were putting in the pool – notice our priorities here, no renovations but a pool – to net off the porthole window on the outside of the house to prevent any further infestation and went off shopping. When we came back we went outside to check if they had done so and were greeted by the upsetting sight of a beautiful barn owl staring out at us from inside the netting. I yelled for the workmen to come back and liberate her immediately, which they did reluctantly, all the time muttering under their breaths about these mad tender-hearted townies who were not prepared to let a silly bird die! We had a wonderful summer with these owls appearing every evening in low silent swoops. Unfortunately, now the house has been almost completely renovated and we spend a number of months a year there, they are nowhere to be seen. Sad.